BOOKS
This book is full of recent sightings of WereDolphins and other Shifters, as well as Magickians who were associated with them. For those interested in gathering Shifter Folklore, and who are thirsty for something that didn't supposedly happen 100 or more years ago, this book is good. Others may or may not like it.
This book was recommended by a Werewolf. I have not read it, but it is supposed to be "quite a book" and it presents various theories on how WereCreatures could exist.
This book is HIGHLY recommended to all shifters, the many-faceted, yet still highly scientific view of the Wolf is GREAT. The descriptions of how the Innuit (Eskimoes) and Native American Indians see the Wolf is breathtakingly beautiful and spiritual. The section on WereWolves could definately be improved, but it touches on all the important famous events concerning The WereWolf persecution in the Middle Ages. Note: Barry Lopez has also written a number of other books in which animals are looked at in a very respectful, spiritual manner. Many of these are out of print.
This book has become a best-seller. It was written by a woman psycologist who was EXTREMELY successful in instilling a sense of self-esteem and worth and personal identity in women. Our society has stripped women of their inherent positive femininity, leaving passive, harmful femininity in it's place. The author used spiritual teachings of native peoples and folklore in her therapy. This book is about refinding the inherent, healthy, all-wise Wild within us. The use of Wolves as a spiritual metaphor is very like the way Shifters think of their totem animal(s). And, despite the title, it is definately not a book only for Women. It has almost as much about men's spirituality and non-gender-specific spirituality. I HIGHLY recommend it.
This book is THE New Age book on Totem Animals. It is full of excercises.
A book about animal totems, familiars, and how to find them and what to do with them.
This book is a fiction book about Mowgli, a child raised by Wolves. The descriptions of Animal mentality are very spiritual, and undercurrents of Shifter mentality run through the entire book. Kipling was definately either a Shifter or a Symp. He wrote a lot on Shifter-type themes. He spent his childhood in India, being largely raised by Native nannys, and got exposed to a lot of their spirituality and way of life. He claimed to have been present at magick-working ceremonies where he saw extraordinary "miracles". All his life, Kipling commonly disappeared at night to wander in the woods and revel in the night air and nature. Here is the text of many of the stories in "The Jungle Book".
This book is a humorous-sad-spiritual supposedly non-fiction book about a Wildlife biologist. This book makes fun of pretty much all human assumptions about Wolves, and animals in general, and presents humans as the villians and the Wolf as a beautiful, intelligent, spiritual creature. This book blends quite a bit of humor and sarcasm in, but also presents many facts about the way Wolves really are and the way biology tries to create it's own "scientific myth" of them. But it is hard to tell, in many places, whether the author is being serious or not. It has never been proven whether this book is mostly fiction or mostly non-fiction, but it has been proven that some of the events did happen. This book was very popular in it's day and is good reading for any WereWolf. Farley Mowat has written many, many good books on animals, many of them humorous and showing a great empathy with animals and sorrow for their plight, and some of them serious and real real sad, about the way humans have ruined all the world and reduced all animals (but a few, like coons), to a fraction of their original numbers and habitat.
MOVIES
Few shifters are satisfied with the quality of shifter-related movies and books. There are a lot of complaints about how these movies and books promote a very negative image of shifters. I personally would like to see a lot more books and movies that present shifters as closer to what they are in real life and not as bloodthisty murderers. Even the ones where the Werewolf is the hero usually have him or her killing people (or other Werewolves), and often eating them (yuck).
In my opinion, the best Shifter-orientated movie would address most of the psychological/spiritual issues of real-life shifterism in a way that fit in great with the plot. The plot would not involve any killing of humans or other Werecreatures by the Werecreatures. There would be a number of Werecreatures in the movie, not just one or two, and although there would be a number of Werewolves, there would also be other phenotypes, such as Werecats, Werefoxes, and Werebears. All the Werecreatures would shift into real animals, not gross-looking monstrous animals or mostly-human median forms. There would be a fairly even mix of males and females among the Werecreatures, and there would be more than one race, not just whites. There would be many shifting scenes in the movie, not just 2 or 3 like in many Shifter movies. A shifter-orientated book that was like I wanted it to be would be similar to the movie I just described.
Some of the reasons I'd like more Shifter-orientated books and movies like that is for my own enjoyment. I'd also like to see negative stereotypes disspelled, these negative stereotypes have done an incredible amount of damage to the self-esteem of many shifters, and made others fear them more if/when they found out. But, there are some problems with Werecreatures becoming more acceptable and less negative in the public's eyes. Vampires and Goths in general have become acceptable, even romantic, in the public eyes. It is now trendy to be a vampire and the real vampires are not happy about the hordes of goofballs who have decended on the vampire subculture and declared themselves vampires. If Werewolfism becomes trendy, and the real Werewolves get "swamped" in hordes of Goofballs who think Werewolfism is "trendy", that would be very bad. So it is hard to think of a good balance. If good Werewolf books and movies appear, it could easily become trendy.
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